India

India is a key venture point in the exploration of food. India has a very different cuisine compared to the other countries I've studied so far, due to its location and its variety of trade. Indian cuisine is spicy and complex.  The unique ingredients were challenging to find in Charlottesville. As far as cooking goes India could be considered its own continent. I only wish that I could spend more time exploring their culture. My guide will be Gourmet Indian in Minetes by Monisha Bharadwaj.

Vietnamese Dinner at Moto Pho co.

Recently I had the pleasure of dining at a local Vietnamese restaurant called Moto Pho Co. It was a very interesting experience and it gave me a very good insight into another's interpretation on Vietnamese cuisine. I went to the restaurant with my mom and sister.  We read the reviews on yelp, and they were mostly bad, but it is the only Vietnamese restaurant in all of Charlottesville so we were going to try it any way.

location

Moto Pho Co. is located on West Main St. near the toy store Shenanigans. They have a relatively modern and new looking exterior and the inside has 2 long communal tables. The first thing that I noticed was the extensive amount of Sriracha. Behind where this picture was taken there was literally a wall of it stacked on shelves. It was very clean and had an easy lay out.

shrimp rolls 

Their shrimp rolls were much more simple than mine. Its 4 ingredients were cellophane, mint, shrimp, and rice paper. The shrimp rolls were a bit plain but were good with the peanut sauce on the side. I personally preferred the fried version although it was more work it was a more simple interpretation.

My main cours was the Vietnamese sandwich. It was very good, it tasted like a summary of Vietnam all wrapped up into a sandwich. I liked it very much, it was very filling and flavorful. Over all I feel like the restaurant is under rated. We didn't get a five-star meal, but it has a cool vibe and I recommend  it to anyone trying to get a decent Vietnamese meal.

Green Tea Granita

I was looking for something simple yet unique and delicious at the same time. A frozen green tea dessert in The Kimchi Chronicles caught my eye while browsing through the dessert chapter. This is the first frozen ice dessert that I have ever made and I enjoyed it very much.

Ingredients

The ingredients were very simple just ginger, green tea bags, honey, lime zest, and water.

The first step was to essentially just to make a big cup of tea by adding about 4 cups of boiling water to the bowl of 6 tea bags.

final liquid state 

Once the tea was steeped the honey and ginger were added to finish the liquid state.

frozen state 

After 4 hours of freezing the ice was frozen and I shredded it with a fork to be distributed.

finished product 

The granita had a very strong ginger, honey, and tea flavor. It is the literal version of an iced tea, it was very delicious although it would have been better suited to the summer time. I gave it a lime zest which just enhanced the overall flavor.

Seaweed With Garlic and Vinegar

Contrary to the Korean chicken wings recipe, this was my least favorite of the food that I have cooked in this project. I did not enjoy the this meal at all so I didn't even bother with a final picture. It was not an enjoyable experience to make this dish I really was not getting a good vive while making it.

ingredients 

We may have bought the wrong kind of seaweed.

I soaked the dried seaweed for 10 minutes in cold water to soften it.  It was very difficult to shred.  Even my best chef's knife couldn't cut it very well.

"finished" product

I mixed the shredded seaweed in with a garlic, rice vinegar, vegetable oil, salt, sugar, red pepper powder, and black pepper. The salad had little to no flavor, it was very slimy from the seaweed, and the dressing added very little flavor. I did not enjoy this meal but I'm not giving up on Korean cooking.  I think that it was just a poor choice of recipe. 

Spicy and Sweet Fried Chicken Wings

An absolutely delicious display of modern Korean cooking. This recipe is, without going into too much detail (saving detail for the end), absolutely phenomenal. I picked this recipe because I didn't want something ancient or traditional. I set up this country all in one meal, an entree, a side, and a dessert.

Ingredients assembled 

Most of the ingredients were pretty basic other than the red pepper paste.  I couldn't find the correct red pepper paste, even though I made a special trip to Foods of all Nations, so I substituted chili with Garlic paste (similar ingredients with just a little more spice), which I found in the Asian aisle at Foods of All Nations.  It had the same ingredients as traditional Korean red pepper paste, so I must have been close.

Chicken in Marinade 

I placed the chicken wings in a marinade of sugar, fresh lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, red pepper paste, garlic cloves, and ginger.

sauce

The sauce had a very good consistency it was sticky, sweet, and spicy. The ingredients were red pepper paste, rice vinegar, honey, red pepper powder (substituted chili pepper), and sesame seeds.

prep.

Chicken dredged in flour before frying.

frying 

The chicken was fried in 1 inch of oil and cooked for about 10 minutes.

combined with sauce 

The sauce was a perfect amount for the quantity of chicken. It stuck instantly with no liquid runoff on the bottom. It was not soggy at all. I would describe it as everything that a sauce should be.

final product 

Well, let's start with the chicken.  It was perfectly moist and had a very satisfying overall taste. The sauce was both spicy and sweet it complemented the flavor of the marinade greatly. They both combined to form a delicious creation. It was imposable tell that the chicken was even fried in the first place. This has been my over all favorite meal so far in my international foods project.

                                                                                                                                                               

Korea

I have very little idea about the history or the cultural background of food in Korea. The most I know about the country is Gangnam style. Although I know little about the country I can say that their food is fun and delicious. Korean cuisine displays a very modern style with the feel of many cultural foods fused into one and yet it still maintains its own unique taste. I will be using The Kimchi Chronicles Korean Cooking for an American Kitchen by Marja Vongerichten.

Fried Boneless Chicken with Honey and Ginger

I have made Chinese sesame chicken in the past and I have always loved it whether it be ordered out or made at home. I wanted to find a recipe that was like sesame chicken and yet still had a Vietnamese feel.

assembled ingredients 

I started by assembling my ingredients.

I caramelized some onions until browned then added chicken until that too took on a slight brown color.

Once the onion and chicken were ready I added the garlic and ginger.

I then stirred in the honey, fish sauce, soy sauce, and five spice powder. The most unique and noticeable ingrediant was probably the five spice powder.

finished product

The chicken was very good although the five spice powder was very overpowering and controlling of the taste. It just seemed like it was one of the strangest ingredients and although there was emphasis on the honey it was a very embedded flavor. I served it with brussels sprouts sautéed with oil, pepper and five spice powder to compliment the flavors of the chicken.

Fried shrimp rolls

Fried shrimp rolls caught my eye while looking through The Foods of Vietnam by Nicole Routhier. It gave a very authentic feel of Vietnam and I could not pass up the opportunity to make them. I enjoyed the process of creating a filling and then folding them into beautiful creations.

Ingredients assembled 

The Ingredients were somewhat common and most were left over from the china project. I used meatloaf mix, which my mom said was a mixture of beef and pork, as a substitute for the beef and pork called for in the recipe. Spring roll rice wrappers were much easier to work with than the spring roll wrappers used in the vegetarian spring rolls.

soaking bean threads 

The cellophane noodles were something that I had dealt with before in Chinese cuisine. They provide mainly texture to the meal but are still important.

filling for shrimp rolls

The filling consisted of the soaked cellophane noodles, meat loaf mix, canned crab meat, shallots, garlic, onion, bean threads, nuoc mam (fish sauce), black pepper, and an egg. I mixed it with my hands to blend it as well as possible.

folding step 1 

The rice wrappers had to be soaked briefly in warm sugar water.  The other steps will be visible in the pictures.

folding step 2

Shrimp is added to the top of the filling which was then topped with more filling.

folding step 3

Corners folded in on all sides.

folding step 3

Start to fold into a continuing triangle formation. 

final step

Continue folds until it resembles a bundle, the tails should come off the top. 

frying 

Once a good number of rolls has been reached it is time to deep fry. The rice paper is very sticky so I limited it to four at at time. 

final product 

The rolls were very good but slightly challenging to eat (because of the tail). I used Mad Hatter as a sauce and it was very flavorful but if I were to do it again I would probably try and pick a more Vietnamese sauce.